WWE NXT TakeOver: XXV/WWE Stomping Grounds/AEW Double or Nothing Thread

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CycloneRulzzz

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Listening to a SSD podcast recap and coming out of SSD matches were made for Stomping Grounds. The podcast said the Stomping Grounds should be called WWE Piss Break

We knew about Bayley and Bliss but to that we have

Reigns vs McIntyre Mania rematch
Becky Lynch vs Lacey Evans MITB rematch
Universal Title Seth vs Corbin SSD rematch
WWE Title Kofi vs Dolph SSD rematch
 

CycloneRulzzz

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Taker/Goldberg was the worst match I've seen in a long time. Had really low expectations and it was way worse than I expected.

The podcast recap I listened to said that Taker just doesn't have the lift in his legs to do some of these moves anymore. That botched jackhammer was bad but alot of blame goes to Taker because in doing a jackhammer the person taking it needs to get a good lift or person doing it a middle aged Goldberg has to dead-lift a 300 lbs of weight.
 

1UNI2ISU

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That was 100% on Taker. He dropped Goldberg on his head on the first tombstone. He couldn't push off at all to get up into the jackhammer and also landed a couple of really stiff punches.

Goldberg wasn't blameless. That knee bar was comically bad and he took the post spot wrong and both concussed himself and busted himself open.

Goldberg would probably be okay with a younger strong guy but Taker is just flat unsafe at this point. He needs to stop before he really hurts somebody
 

DrizzyCyclone

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Haven’t done NJPW updates as much in 2019 due to some life changes (not being a ISU student and entering the workforce full time) cutting down on time available to watch, but was able to watch Dominion today. Dominion is most comparable to Summerslam in terms of single night PPV events for New Japan. Not gonna go over the results of every match but will go over the important happenings and highlights of the event in the next post.
 

DrizzyCyclone

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- Jon Moxley wrestled in a short squash match to start the show. After he won, he cut a short promo stating that he wants to compete in the G1 Climax! This is obviously a huge deal if this comes to fruition. I figured that this wouldn’t happen due to the tournament starting July 6th while AEW has Fight For The Fallen on July 13th. This means that he'll be at the G1 kickoff show in Dallas on July 6th and is guaranteed to have 9 singles matches in a month span. In more general commentary, Moxley's character is interesting to say the least. He is an aggressive brawler that has heel tendencies but has also done some face things as well. After this match, he walked with his opponent to the back. I'm wondering what this is leading to, but he seems to be a tweener at the moment.
- After losing to Will Ospreay in a spectacular match for the Best of the Super Junior finals (5.75 stars from Meltzer, would definitely give it a watch), Shingo Takagi defeated legend Satoshi Kojima to show that he has the ability to compete at heavyweight. After the match, Takagi stated his intentions to enter the G1 as well.
- Tomohiro Ishii defeated Taichi to become the new NEVER Openweight Champion.
- In between matches, Katsuyori Shibata came out and introduced KENTA (Hideo Itami in WWE) to the audience. This is a major surprise as it was assumed that he would go back to Pro Wrestling NOAH since KENTA made his name there before heading to WWE. KENTA spoke briefly and said he wants to be in the G1 Climax as well! Obviously a huge development and shows that even though guys like Kenny Omega aren't around, the G1 will be as intriguing as ever.
- Will Ospreay defeated Dragon Lee to become the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion in the match of the night.
- Tetsuya Naito defeated Kota Ibushi to become the new IWGP Intercontinental Champion. Really good match but it made me uncomfortable with some of the spots that occurred. Ibushi is going to get seriously injured if he continues to take the neck bumps that he does. Naito also takes some crazy bumps. Wonder how this victory changes Naito's G1 odds as he was the presumed favorite before winning today. I doubt that Wrestle Kingdom next January would have a champion vs. champion Okada-Naito match but I've been wrong on plenty of occasions. The G1 should be must-watch TV for the time it takes place.
- Kazuchika Okada defeated Chris Jericho in a decent match to retain the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Jericho dominated the majority of the match, but Okada pinned Jericho via a British Bulldog Summerslam 92 cradle. Jericho beat down Okada after the bell until Hiroshi Tanahashi made the save. Jericho cut a heel promo after that and Tanahashi and Okada went to the back together to end the event. The ending was weird as the crowd booed after it was announced the event ended. Jericho is still able to get a lot of heat, but his act seems to be getting a little stale. The post match events point to Jericho facing Okada again this year and facing Tanahashi at Wrestle Kingdom this coming January.
- Overall, a really good event that I enjoyed watching. Can't wait to see what the G1 has in store next month. I'll see if I can write a preview when the block assignments come out.
 

jdoggivjc

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For those of us (especially my broke ass) that didn’t want to put forward the $50 to watch Double or Nothing, good news - Fyter Fest, AEW’s next event on June 29, will be streaming on BR Live for free.
 
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jdoggivjc

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If Twitter activity is to be believed, neither Mike Bennett nor Maria Kanellis will be resigning sign WWE when their contracts run out next week. Hard to blame them - they’ve been treated like a joke since the moment they debuted. As soon as they came through the curtain and JBL said “I can’t believe he took her name” it was appropriate to write his eulogy. There were a lot of great things that happened in their personal lives during their run (Mike got “clean”, they had their first child, etc), but calling their run “forgettable” wouldn’t be accurate because there wasn’t much to remember in the first place.
 

HitItHard58

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If Twitter activity is to be believed, neither Mike Bennett nor Maria Kanellis will be resigning sign WWE when their contracts run out next week. Hard to blame them - they’ve been treated like a joke since the moment they debuted. As soon as they came through the curtain and JBL said “I can’t believe he took her name” it was appropriate to write his eulogy. There were a lot of great things that happened in their personal lives during their run (Mike got “clean”, they had their first child, etc), but calling their run “forgettable” wouldn’t be accurate because there wasn’t much to remember in the first place.
Sucks if true I really like them on 205 live. Definitely can't blame them though. I enjoy 205 because there are always great matches but I can understand not being content with that being the pinnacle of your WWE run.
 

Knownothing

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AEW is going to make a lot of stars out of people everyone thinks is getting the shaft at WWE. I think Moxley has a real life him vs Vince Feud. He is kind of playing the SCTA angle except he really left and is now competing against Vince. Nobody has played a good anti establishment roll for a while. So it should play well for a long time. I hope he keeps firing shots at WWE. Surprised Vince has not been smart enough to create a character to oppose the McMahons. It always works. Worked for Stone Cold. Worked for Daniel Bryant.
 

jdoggivjc

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AEW is going to make a lot of stars out of people everyone thinks is getting the shaft at WWE. I think Moxley has a real life him vs Vince Feud. He is kind of playing the SCTA angle except he really left and is now competing against Vince. Nobody has played a good anti establishment roll for a while. So it should play well for a long time. I hope he keeps firing shots at WWE. Surprised Vince has not been smart enough to create a character to oppose the McMahons. It always works. Worked for Stone Cold. Worked for Daniel Bryant.

First I want to state that I tend to agree with what you said.

That being said, not to be a Debbie Downer, but let's temper the expectations on AEW a bit. While The Elite have proven they can put on really good PPVs nearly a year apart from one another, they have yet to run PPVs much closer to one another, and they certainly haven't done weekly TV yet. And they have a grand total of two storylines at the moment: Jon Moxley coming in and attacking Jericho and Omega, and the "we're not competing with WWE" while nearly everything they do is directed at WWE. They're some of the best names in the world when it comes to in-ring talent, but they have little in the way of storylines and workrate shows will get old very quickly. It's not that I don't expect them to eventually develop beyond this, it's just they haven't done it yet.

One other thing - there are a ton of unused/misused talent in WWE's locker room that's itching to get out so they can get their shot in AEW, but that doesn't necessarily mean AEW is going to come knocking. AEW is on the record for saying they're not just going to take all of WWE's rejects. So you may not see AEW make a bunch of stars out of WWE's forgotten simply because most of them may not even make it through AEW's front door.
 
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jdoggivjc

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Saw the spoilers for NXT tapings that should take us to Toronto - or, at least the first half, as there's more tomorrow night. As much as I like to compliment HHH for the job he does with NXT, FFS their women's division is dead. Which is plain sad because of the talent they currently have on TV (Baszler, Shirai, LeRae, Yim, and Belair). Shirai and Belair have no credibility left, LeRae continues to be stuck in her husband's shadow even though their stories have diverged, and as much as they're building Yim up, she still doesn't look like a credible challenger for Baszler, who at this point is just holding the entire division down. She should have dropped the title to either Shirai or Belair months ago and been called up to the main roster while Lacey Evans starts getting a major push at NXT.

At least I have the NXT UK women's division, which at this point in time is awesome.
 
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1UNI2ISU

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I worry that AEW is going to cater too much to the IWC and do tons and tons of inside stuff that isn't going to resonate at all with the 'casual' fan. They have to have the 'casual' fan in order to even try to make a dent in WWE.

I get that the current 'cool' thing is to rip and tear everything that the WWE does apart but there's also a reason that Vince has been around for 40 years and running a multi-billion dollar empire.
 
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jdoggivjc

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I worry that AEW is going to cater too much to the IWC and do tons and tons of inside stuff that isn't going to resonate at all with the 'casual' fan. They have to have the 'casual' fan in order to even try to make a dent in WWE.

I get that the current 'cool' thing is to rip and tear everything that the WWE does apart but there's also a reason that Vince has been around for 40 years and running a multi-billion dollar empire.

It’s not that they have to cater to the “casual fan”, it’s that they have to strike a balance. It’s actually one of WWE’s biggest problems - they’ve swung so far towards trying to attract and cater to the casual fan that they’ve alienated their core audience. Add on top of that just about everything about Raw and SmackDown has been so bad that even the casual fan thinks it’s crap, and it’s no surprise both Raw and SmackDown are facing all time lows in viewership and attendance.

What I’m trying to say is AEW has to be mindful of the casual audience, but it can’t cater to it. It has to cater to its core audience - pro wrestling fans - while being mindful that the casuals can pick up what’s going on. At the end of the day the casual fan is going to come and go, but it’s your core audience that’s going to tune in every week. And if you do your job well enough, eventually many of the casuals will become part of the core audience.
 

jdoggivjc

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If Twitter activity is to be believed, neither Mike Bennett nor Maria Kanellis will be resigning sign WWE when their contracts run out next week. Hard to blame them - they’ve been treated like a joke since the moment they debuted. As soon as they came through the curtain and JBL said “I can’t believe he took her name” it was appropriate to write his eulogy. There were a lot of great things that happened in their personal lives during their run (Mike got “clean”, they had their first child, etc), but calling their run “forgettable” wouldn’t be accurate because there wasn’t much to remember in the first place.

Forget what I said - it's being reported Mike and Maria have re-upped with WWE.

https://www.cagesideseats.com/wwe/2019/6/15/18680452/mike-maria-kanellis-wwe-new-deals